The day was July 4th, 2016. The place? A fancy beach in Rhode Island, where Tom Hiddleston—newly minted member of Taylor Swift's squad—felt the need to frolic in the water wearing an "I Heart T.S." tank top. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the most WTF of times. And now, Tom is *finally* explaining himself.

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Tom Hiddleston really ❤️'s Taylor Swift

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb)

"The truth is, it was the Fourth of July and a public holiday and we were playing a game and I slipped and hurt my back," Hiddleston recently told . "And I wanted to protect the graze from the sun and said, 'Does anyone have a T-shirt?' And one of her friends said, 'I've got this.' And we all laughed about it. It was a joke."

He wanted to PROTECT HIS GRAZE, mmmkay?! So, what are Hiddleston's feelings on Taylor now that they're broken up?

"Taylor is an amazing woman," he says. "She's generous and kind and lovely, and we had the best time. Of course it was real."

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"I don't know," he continues. "I just, I was surprised. I was just surprised that it got so much attention. The tank top became an emblem of this thing. I only know the woman I met. She's incredible. A relationship in the limelight...A relationship always takes work. A relationship in the limelight takes work. And it's not just the limelight. It's everything else. So we decided to go out for dinner, we decided to travel."